Owing to the growing demand for increased chip power, inadequate heat dissipation is a growing problem in semiconductor devices, particularly in semiconductor devices having power semiconductor components. Said inadequate heat dissipation can lead to instability and to a failure of the semiconductor component. It is generally known that an additional heat sink can be arranged on the device housing or directly on the semiconductor component in order to distribute the heat better.
However, it is more complicated to mount a heat sink onto vertical power devices since the top side and also the underside of the semiconductor component have a contact connection. Consequently, contact elements are arranged on the top side and also on the underside of the semiconductor component, with the result that the semiconductor component is left with no or very little free surface area onto which an additional heat sink can be mounted.
DE 10 2004 021 838 discloses a semiconductor device having a single contact clip, which is in thermal contact with the surroundings in order to improve the heat dissipation from the device. However, this device has the disadvantage that the arrangement is not suitable for devices having a plurality of contact elements on the top side of the semiconductor component, for example for vertical power semiconductor components, since short circuits can arise between the heat sink and the plurality of contact elements.